


Date Night

by AraSigyrn, deannawol



Series: Friday Night Firefight - Bad Nights and Big Cities [7]
Category: American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-21
Updated: 2012-02-21
Packaged: 2017-10-31 13:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/344550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraSigyrn/pseuds/AraSigyrn, https://archiveofourown.org/users/deannawol/pseuds/deannawol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kris, a conversation and a mugging.</p><p>A taster-fic that won't make much sense out of context.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Date Night

`Login ID: Hijack [HIJACK]`  
Authentication algorithm......verified.  
Access Granted.  
Chat Feed Channel: Gaff & Leo's SUMMER PLANNING PARTY!!  
Encryption: 255,781 Sendai-standard bit encryption  
Routing Host: CIA Mainframe 

The thing that took most getting used to about New York, in Kris' highly biased opinion, was the traffic. In San D, cars just plowed through intersections and around corners without noticing hapless pedestrians but in New York at eight o'clock on a Thursday, cars seemed to be actively trying to hit him.

"I should have brought my bike," Kris muttered and the chat box display in the left lower corner of his eye immediately refreshed.

`ROOT:> You should but you're the one who wanted to go shopping. :p`

`SYS:> It's not like you're not used to the hazards of a pedestrian life. You used to walk around the Gauntlet and the people there really do want to kill you.`

Kris grinned as he darted across the last few yards to safety. "Yeah, but no-one in their right mind drives into the Gauntlet in anything less than a tank."

The other pedestrians, mostly older men in the standard corp uniform, glanced around at him then relaxed at the faintly glowing EarBud clipped to his left ear. It was technically supposed to be used as a courtesy to let people know you were using an internal phone splice and Kris found it worked like magic. Even if you technically didn't have a phone splice. SYS routed the chat bot through his wrist-comp which was tucked under the edge of his gloves. He flexed his fingers, tapping a quick message on the virtual keyboard.

`HIJACK:>> God bless NYC and its many, many poorly secured networks.`

`SYS:> Amen.`

`ROOT:> AMEN! Seriously, I am totally loving this new chat bot, S.`

"Yeah, me too," Kris hefted his shopping bag onto his hip as he was jostled. "It's good to get the chance to talk to you guys, you know?"

`SYS:> Well, gotta stay in touch with my boys. :) Especially since you're on opposite coasts now. :(`

`ROOT:> Hey, blame him! I'm staying right here. It's you guys who are moving.`

"New York, New York," Kris sang under his breath.

`ROOT:> It's a dump of a town?`

`SYS:> The Corps are up and the University's down?`

"You both suck. Anyway, I had my reasons for wanting to go," Kris argued, smiling despite himself. Thankfully the voice-to-text algorithm wasn't keyed to pick up on tone. He really had missed talking to them and with all three of them in different time-zones and following three wholly different erratic schedules, being able to just have a quick chat was a godsend. Well, Kris amended, a SYSsend.

Root was getting ready for a gig in one of the urban merc bars as a back-up guitar player while SYS had already spent five minutes discussing the seminar she was preparing for her grad students on Monday.

`SYS:> So, what happened with work?`

`ROOT:> Yeah, you were totally steamed when you picked up.`

"Nothing serious," Kris dodged expertly between a lady with both arms full of shopping bags. "Just a personality clash. Me and Firecracker have been butting heads the last few days and she wanted me to stay late, that's all."

`ROOT:> Stay late?`

`SYS:> On DATE NIGHT? Wow, it's like she doesn't know you at all.`

"I wouldn't call it date night," Kris muttered, feeling the blush spreading up to singe his ears.

`ROOT:> I would! `

`SYS:> H, seriously. You are always home on Thursday night. You don't even jack in on a Thursday.`

`ROOT:> Because you're cheating on us with your boy. I mean, c'mon, what's he offering that we aren't?`

"Mind-blowing sex," Kris said blandly and had to steady an older lady with a wooden cross pinned to her jacket as she startled back from him. "Also, he does this thing with his tongue-"

`SYS:> OKAY! YES! WE GET IT!`

`ROOT:> scarred for life man fy`

Kris cackled as they both filled the chat box with complaints and demands for brain bleach. It was a surefire distraction - given the opportunity to catch up on nine years of bitching about a significant other, neither could resist. He wasn't really in the mood to talk about Firecracker and was absolutely certain that he didn't want to talk about her now with his blood still boiling.

He wasn't _Idolize:NYC_ 's only bartender; hell, he wasn't even the only flair bartender on the books anymore and he'd worked every Friday-weekend since they'd opened without needing to be blackmailed into it even. All he wanted was Thursday evening. It was their night in; the only night he and Adam actually consciously set time aside just to spend with each other.

Root and SYS weren't the first ones to tease him about it; Cale had been merciless when Kris enlisted him to help find a decent butcher selling real meat a fortnight ago. Kris had been getting spasms in his neck and Adam would have murdered him if he'd tried to drive himself. Hell, _Cale_ would have murdered him. Nakamura had insisted that there was no 'significant' permanent damage to his nervous system but there were episodes as Kris' synapses healed that made riding around the claustrophobic streets of NYC risky if not suicidal.

It wasn't that big a deal, honestly. Years in the Gauntlet had broken Kris of the habit of driving everywhere and he was more comfortable on his own two feet. He was also learning the alleys and backwards of the blocks between Idolize and their apartment. He'd had to take a few shortcuts already; Firecracker had seriously not wanted to cut him loose.

The crowd hadn't been the problem; not with Janice running the shift and three of the most experienced bar staff in the city slinging shots. There hadn't been any _need_ for Kris to stay and there certainly hadn't been any need to lay a epic level guilt trip on him for wanting to go home on time.

Kris had been planning this dinner for two weeks. It was another of their sorta anniversaries; four months to day that Trojan had burned and they'd finished the job that everyone thought couldn't be done. Adam had been curious about Kris' steak wrangling skills since Cale had started dropping pointed hints about his next birthday and how he planned to be eating and it had seemed like an awesome idea.

`ROOT:> So, what were you shopping for anyway? `

`SYS:> It was at a butchers, dumbass. Didn't you read the network ID?`

`ROOT:> Wait, you mean we're not still doing the whole 'cyber stalking is creepy and wrong' thing anymore? Sweet!`

"You have the most disturbing ways of saying the sweetest things, man," Kris chuckled, ducking down one of the alleys that should lead him out onto the road his apartment building was on.

`ROOT:> What can I say? It's a natural gift.`

`SYS:> I'm on H's side here. That was equal parts adorable and unsettling. It's probably still not 'not-creepy' but how else are we supposed to keep tabs on each other. I like to know you're not in the wind. If that's creepy cyber stalking, well, I'm surprisingly okay with it.`

"Most normal people just call up and say hi," Kris mentioned casually as he resettled his own bag and the rubberized plastic of the shopping bag as he hurried down the alley. There was a rancid dumpster with moldering bags stacked around it and Kris picked up the pace. The bustle of the crowd could be a million miles away and he could feel the chill of the autumn wind through his jacket and-and something wasn't right.

NYC was nothing like the Gauntlet but Kris had relied on his instincts for too long not to trust them now. There was an indescribable sense of being watched. Kris' fingers flexed, typing a quick command as he looked around then updating the chat.

`HIJACK:>> Gimme a sec, guys. I think I've got company.`

`ROOT:> What sort of company?`

`SYS:> Where the fuck are you? I don't have you on any of the cameras around your block.`

`HIJACK:>> brb`

The guy that came prowling out of the shadows, metal fangs gleaming in the dim light, wasn't wearing gang colors. That was about the only thing that looked to be going in Kris' favor. He was huge, not quite as tall as Adam but nearly twice as broad across the shoulders. His skin was Kevlar-textured and Kris saw the tell-tale track marks even before he saw the black-purple bruising around the guy's eyes.

Wonderful.

Kris tugged the wrist-comp a little higher on his wrist, watching the guy out of the corner of his eye. A quick flick of his eyes highlighted Virago's icon and the guy was quickly outlined and diagrammed, Virago feeding back everything that could be seen or deduced about the guy.

Merc, former ganger, signs of advanced Killer_K and cyber addiction, no formal combat training and then the laundry list of cyberware he was likely to have. Kris skimmed it quickly, easing back a step and half-turning to put the grubby brick wall at his back. It didn't make for cheerful reading. Kris didn't have a chance against the merc in a straight fight.

"Put the bag down, pretty boy," the merc purred. "Be a shame to have to break those pretty little hands. Be such a waste."

Kris lowered the bags slowly, careful not to drop them and the merc smirked. "Dorsett-Gibson bag, pretty boy. Did your Daddy buy it for you? Did he make you suck his dick, pretty boy, to earn such a pretty bag? Did he fuck you for it?"

"It was a present," Kris straightened, flexing his fingers. It really had been, though Andre Dorsett was as far from Kris' father as it was possible to get without going outside the human species. Kris would have been perfectly happy with the canvas/Kevlar bag he'd picked up in mall but Dre had insisted. Kris wasn't sure if it was a thank-you for saving Dorsett-Gibson's client list or breaking Dre's partner out of Fortress with no prep time and only Adam to watch his back. It didn't matter either way but Kris thought he'd like to know.

"You like presents? I like presents. What are you going to give me, pretty boy, if I promise not to hurt you," the merc grabbed Kris' upper arm, fingers digging in painfully as he smacked his lips with a wet, sloppy sound. "...much?"

Kris' hand clamped around the merc's wrist and he could feel the chill even through the solid leather padding of his glove. Another gift from Dre; his version of a care package. Sent direct from San D, they'd made it to NYC before Kris had. He dug his thumb into the bump of the merc's plug socket and felt the rough patch of conductive thread against the pad of his thumb. The merc's smile was spread across his face like an oil slick and his grip on Kris' arm tightened. Kris' lips curled just barely into a smile.

"Reboot."

The shock of the electric current sent the muscles of his arm into spasm as it raced up through the wonky cross-stitch of conductive thread and straight into the merc's plug. The merc's whole face contorted as he jerked backwards, nearly dislocating Kris' shoulder in the process and collapsed like a puppet with the strings cut.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! _OW_!" Kris hunched in on himself, arms cradled against his chest as they spasmed and twitched. He gritted his teeth, hissing curses as the first shock eased by degrees. It took a minute before he could shake his arms out gingerly and he had to rub away a few tears before he could focus on anything but the ebbing jolts of electricity in his arm. The merc was twitching, drooling onto the asphalt. At least he still had a pulse.

Kris pulled his gloves off clumsily and managed to stuff them into his bag before his wrist-comp finished its protective reboot. Battery-low alerts pinged across his inner eye display as the wrist-comp slowly came back online. Kris highlighted Chronos' icon and it flashed, opening a dialogue box a millisecond later.

"`NYPD anonymous tip line contacted. `

`"Subject is observed to behaving erratically and displaying behavior consistent with drug addiction. Signs of significant cyber-enhancement."`

`C-SWAT Unit WG-170448 dispatched to scene. ETA: Driving Time.`"

"Time to go, then," Kris gathered up shopping with twitching hands. It felt like the world's worst case of pins and needles in his right hand. "Need to work on that."

He carefully didn't run but he was still around the corner before the first siren started to close in. The chat-bot connection flashed up a reconnected icon and the chat window reappeared.

`SYS:> swear to God, H. If you don't answer right the fuck now`

`ROOT:> I have your boy's number and I am totally willing to use it!`

`SYS:> I will upload every spam, advertising pop-up bot in the Western Hemisphere onto your deck and disable your admin rights!`

`HIJACK:>> I'm here. I'm here. No need to freak out.`

`SYS:> WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!`

`ROOT:> WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!!?!`

"I ran into a mugger who just became Subject Zero for the beta version of ReBOOT," Kris said tersely. The sirens were closing in now and he saw one of the sleek black SWAT transports come around the corner on two wheels. He flexed the fingers of his right hand gingerly. "We might need to work on the amperage but I'm not dead and bonus, neither is he. Flag C-SWAT's report when they file it, would you?"

`SYS:> ReBOOT?`

`ROOT:> As in the EXPERIMENTAL 'cyberware hack protocol: ReBOOT'?`

`SYS:> You just forced a hard reboot of some tin-headed cyber-junkie's 'ware? Using a WRIST COMP?`

`ROOT:> Dude. METAL! \m/ `

"It wasn't perfect," Kris admitted as he dug his keys out of his bag. "But it worked and now I am running _late_ so I'm going to have to love and leave. We can talk about it tomorrow, okay?"

` SYS:> fine`

`ROOT:> Enjoy your Date Night! :) `

"Believe me," Kris laughed as he jogged up the steps to the front door of their building, keys in hand. "I'm planning to."

` Hijack [HIJACK] has logged out. `


End file.
